


Peace

by occasionalphantomfiction (SemiRetiredAuthor)



Series: Phanniemay 2016 [16]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Danny Fenton & Christmas, Gen, Phanniemay, Phanniemay 2016, Phanniemay16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 01:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12570392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SemiRetiredAuthor/pseuds/occasionalphantomfiction
Summary: Danny finally comes to peace with the holiday season.





	Peace

For all of his memorable life, Danny had hated December twenty-fifth more than any other day of the year. He distinctly remembered one day in middle school when he received not one, not two, but _three_ failed assignments from different teachers on the same day that he managed to fall on the concrete during recess—in a time before his bully victimhood had truly started to top it off, meaning the fall was frustratingly through no fault but his own, resulting from clumsiness in a developing body—breaking his arm, and even _that_ couldn’t compete with any Christmas for worst day in his life.

Christmas had never been about spending time with his family and friends, though that  wasn’t through too much fault of his own. He’d take ownership over his own choice to storm away from his parents during each of their heated and extended Santa arguments, but if he had to blame anyone, it would be both of his parents—parents who normally could respectfully disagree when arguments sprung up in the presence of their children but who threw that policy out the window when it came to this one specific point of contention.

For a minimum of two weeks every year, the Fenton household could be found split in a near-constant battle over the existence of one Santa Claus, Maddie often starting her arguments with snide, self-assured comments on the anti-Santa side while Jack was more prone to burst into joyful assertions of the man’s obvious and assured existence. Naturally, either one stating anything even tangentially related to the holiday or the jolly fat man himself would spark a battle from the opposing side. The arguments had long ceased being original, instead becoming repetitions of years-old points that had already been talked to death many a time.

Other families mostly celebrated the holiday by secretly shopping for gifts, decorating their living spaces, baking treats, and spending quality time together. Danny’s family mostly “celebrated” the holiday with lively and heated debates with a cursory effort to join in on more normal family activities like decorating a tree or baking cookies. The worst part was that nobody seemed to see the dysfunction except Danny: his parents seemed to believe that jumping down each other’s throats for the holidays was acceptable provided they forgave and forgot after each Christmas until the next year, Jazz continued to happily ignore her family most of the time with her head in a book, and Sam and Tucker didn’t seem to notice anything wrong with his family’s celebrations. Only Danny ever voiced complaints about the season.

The lab accident was what had eventually led Danny to reconsider his opinion on the holiday. There were countless cons to become a human-ghost hybrid, but oddly enough, one of the pros was earning the not-quite-friendship-but-not-enemyship-either with the full-fledged ghosts for one day each year. While Danny was hesitant to trust the other ghosts for the first few years, he’d developed a temporary faith in them soon enough and found a safe space within the Ghost Zone to hide out and arguably slightly enjoy the one day each year he’d once been completely unable to deal with.

It was something that took some getting used to, to put it simply. Danny had to reconcile the Skulker who wanted to skin him alive with the Skulker who just wanted to regale the crowd with tales of his most exhilarating hunts, the Ember who wanted to brainwash every human being into worshipping her with the Ember who wanted to play some quiet acoustic pieces for her fellow ghosts to enjoy, the Box Ghost who wanted everything to do with boxes with the Box Ghost who… actually still just wanted everything to do with boxes, but less destructively than usual, and there were plenty of other ghosts beyond those three who seemed to completely change for the better on the day of the truce. Danny himself had to fight the need to _stop_ whatever mischief the ghosts were up to, but he’d found that even having to fight that impulse couldn’t ruin the day for him. After an awkward few years of getting used to the whole situation, Danny was now mostly comfortable with listening to Ember’s music, Vlad’s blend of self-righteousness and sucking up, and most of the ghosts’ stories revolving around their respective obsessions, and he even contributed some of his own stories about his civilian life when the conversations came to lulls. Sure, the vast majority of 364 days of the year was still filled with the annoyance and sometimes drudgery of dealing with the same ghosts day in and day out, but if twenty-four hours of peace and rest was what Danny could get, he would damn well enjoy the short break while it lasted.

It was Christmas once again, and this year, Danny Fenton was at peace.


End file.
